@ Sunday Times Books LIVE

“The latest intrigues about the abuse of intelligence services are not just tragic, they pose a serious risk to our democracy,” writes Mamphela Ramphele, AgangSA leader and author of Conversations with My Sons and Daughters, in a Business Day column.

Ramphele writes that the “Abuse of intelligence services is a serious form of corruption and a wasteful expenditure of resources that should be building schools and homes, running efficient and effective health services and protecting citizens from crime.”

The latest intrigues about the abuse of intelligence services are not just tragic, they pose a serious risk to our democracy. Successive governments under both presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma have involved our national intelligence services in fighting battles within the African National Congress (ANC). In Mbeki’s term the issue was that of his perceived rivals — Mathews Phosa, Tokyo Sexwale and Cyril Ramaphosa — being accused of plotting against him.

Then we had Zuma, the presidential candidate, getting access to national intelligence information to discredit his corruption charges as a political plot to prevent his ascent to the Presidency.